a nice trip

Last week, I drove up into western NY to my home town - Bath.  My brother Tom and his wife Peggy Louise still live there.  I go up every summer to visit them and to have lunch with some of my high school friends.  This requires a good deal of emailing back and forth with the friends in order to find a day convenient for all parties.  It's worth it for me to keep in touch with long-time friends.  (You'll notice I did NOT say 'old' friends. I'm still not ready to call them and myself old!) 

The route up through Pennsylvania is a lovely drive through mountains and farms.  Route 15 also has antique stores all along the way.  I have my favorites, although two of them closed down last year.  Still, there are plenty of stores left and their prices are MUCH cheaper than any around here.  There are also a couple of wonderful antique stores along Keuka Lake.  I think my favorite is the one called 'The Wild Goose Chase'.  Isn't that name wonderful?  It is a huge barn, filled with 'junk' mostly.  I have bought a lot of my 'yard art' there.  As you can tell, this yearly trip is a wonderful vacation for me.  I don't do any cooking (Peggy does it all.) and have no responsibilities, other than getting to the luncheons with my friends.  However, it is a lot of driving.  I drove up on Wednesday and returned on Sunday,and also drove a couple of hours on Friday to meet a friend for lunch.  I was really glad to get home last night.  I had enough of sitting in my car!

I bought my usual eclectic assortment of items - from a glass swan to a two person saw!  Here are a couple of photos of my loot.  The bird houses will be added to my collection.   I found the hollyhock for sale in Hammondsport, a tourist town on Keuka Lake.  Isn't it lovey?  I've been meaning to plant hollyhocks along the fence in the backyard.  So now I have a start.  The store where I bought the plant is a new one

and rather unusual.  Here is a photo of it.  Outside it's a flower shop - beautiful potted plants arranged to look as if they are the landscaping of the house.  Inside the house is an art gallery with mostly very modern items.  I'm not sure how well the art will sell in a rather conservative community, but hopefully the tourists will buy.  There were some items I would have bought if I had more money and more space in my house!